Every prompt in this library is built from the same four parts. Once you can see the pattern, you
can write your own for any situation that comes up — and you will, because your transition will
throw you questions we never thought to cover.
This is a short page. Give it ten minutes and you will get noticeably better results from every
other page on the site.
Role — who the tool should be.
You are a technical recruiter who hires program managers for federal contractors.
Context — everything it needs to know about you and the situation.
I was a Navy Chief, 14 years, supply and logistics, separating in March. Here is my resume: [...]
Task — the single, specific thing you want done.
Rewrite the three bullets under my last assignment so a civilian hiring manager understands the scope.
Format — what the answer should look like.
Give me three versions of each bullet. One line each, under 25 words, starting with a past-tense verb. No adjectives.
Each part does a specific job.
Role sets the frame of reference. Ask a recruiter and a career coach the same question and you
will get two genuinely different answers, both useful for different purposes.
Context is where most of the quality comes from. The more real detail you supply — rank, years,
team size, budget, what you were actually responsible for — the more the answer is about you rather
than about veterans in general.
Task keeps the response focused. One clear job per prompt produces something you can use
immediately; several jobs at once produce a survey.
Format saves you the rework. Say you want five bullets under twenty-five words each, and that
is what arrives — ready to paste, instead of five paragraphs you then have to compress.
This gives the tool almost nothing to work with, so it returns a general-purpose template. Useful
as a shape to react against, and a long way from a document you would send.
“You are a hiring manager at a mid-size logistics company who screens 60 resumes a week.
I spent 14 years in the Navy, finishing as a Chief Petty Officer (E-7) in supply and logistics.
In my last role I managed inventory and distribution for a squadron of 12 aircraft, supervised 9
sailors, controlled a $4M parts inventory, and ran the readiness reporting that went to the
commanding officer weekly. I separated in March and I am applying for supply chain manager roles
in the $95–120K range around Norfolk.
Rewrite my experience as four resume bullets. Each under 25 words, past tense, starting with a
strong verb, no military acronyms, and quantified only where I actually gave you a number.
After the bullets, list any number you think I should go find, and where I would find it.“
Now you have four specific parts working together: a reader whose standards you can picture, a
record with real numbers in it, one clear job, and a format that matches what a resume actually
needs. What comes back is close to usable on the first pass, plus a shortlist of the figures worth
digging out of your records.
The difference between those two prompts is about ninety seconds of typing.
“Give me 8 versions with different angles — some emphasizing leadership, some technical depth,
some scale. Number them.”
There is a good reason this works so well. Recognizing the right phrasing is far easier than
producing it from a blank page, and all of us are sharper editors than we are first-draft writers.
Ask for eight, take the opening of one and the ending of another, and the result will be better
than anything you would have written straight through.
Paste in a job description you admire, a LinkedIn profile that impressed you, or one of your own
bullets that already works well. Then say: “Match this level of specificity.”
Showing beats describing. A single concrete example tells the tool more about the standard you are
aiming for than a paragraph of adjectives ever will.
“Shorter.” · “Less corporate.” · “You lost the part about the budget — put it back.” ·
“Version 3, but with version 5’s opening.”
Three rounds of short corrections will beat any amount of effort spent perfecting the opening
prompt. Treat the first answer as the start of a conversation rather than the deliverable, and keep
steering until it is right. Short, blunt direction works best — full sentences are optional.
ROLE
You are [WHO — e.g. a recruiter for X industry / a hiring manager / a career coach for veterans].
CONTEXT
- My background: [BRANCH, YEARS, RANK, JOB, WHAT YOU ACTUALLY DID]
- Where I am in my search: [E.G. "JUST STARTED" / "3 INTERVIEWS LINED UP" / "6 MONTHS, NO OFFERS"]
- Target role or industry: [TARGET, OR "STILL DECIDING"]
- Relevant material: [PASTE RESUME / JOB DESCRIPTION / PROFILE / NOTES]
TASK
[THE ONE SPECIFIC THING YOU WANT. Be narrow. One task per prompt.]
FORMAT
- [LENGTH — e.g. "under 150 words" / "exactly 5 bullets"]
- [STRUCTURE — e.g. "a table with columns X, Y, Z"]
- [TONE — e.g. "plain spoken, no corporate buzzwords"]
RULES
- Do not invent any fact, number, date, or credential I have not given you.
- If you need something to do this well, ask me before you answer.
- Flag anything in my material that would concern a civilian hiring manager.
Save this in your notes. It is the backbone of every prompt on this site.
